Project Summary: Describe your contribution in one sentence

Through a unique, holistic and collaborative approach, Concular is making the circular economy a reality in the construction sector.

What are the additional countries or territories of impact?

DACH - region

Challenge Focus: What topic does your project most directly relate to?

Website URL(s) or social media handles

www.concular.com

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve?

With 40 percent of global CO2 emissions and 60 percent of global waste, the construction industry is the world's biggest polluter. The main reason for the high emission rate is the energy-intensive production of building materials, which is responsible for about half of the total CO2 consumption in the construction industry. The high waste rate is due to the absence of a functioning process that transfers building materials at the end of their first life into their next life. 

Currently, when buildings are conventionally demolished, the existing materials are either landfilled or recycled in a low-quality way, even though a large proportion is in very good condition and could be reused. Regardless of the ecological impact, material production often takes place in countries with precarious working conditions and is also exposed to the uncertainties of globalized supply chains. 

These issues are pushing the construction industry to transform current practices, which function in a linear and global way, into a circular economy. Concular is tackling this challenge. Our mission is to create a digitalised platform for material cycles in the construction industry, enabling a circular and resource-efficient transformation. We go further than usual approaches by thinking holistically about the challenge and developing interdisciplinary solutions that foster stakeholder participation.

 

Your connection and commitment: How close are you to the problem and/or the community impacted?

Climate change is a global problem impacting us all on a social, ecological and economical level. Concular's solution contributes to mitigating the catastrophic consequences of a world which is 2 degrees warmer, as a consistent reintroduction of used material into new life-cycles could save up to 14 % of global CO2 emissions (!). In this mission our founders aligned in 2012, when Dominik, Julius, Marc and Linda founded restado.de, which today is the biggest European marketplace for reused materials. Already then our team deeply cared about the topic of sustainable development and was doing pioneering work against the huge pollution problem caused by the inefficiencies of the construction sector. This decade-long experience with reused materials in the construction sector finally generated the understanding among our founders that we need to think bigger and in a more participatory way to truly bring about the transformation. What was needed was an ecosystem for circular construction and a scalable digital solution that enables all involved stakeholders to pursue systemic change toward a circular economy in the construction sector. This solution is Concular, the digital ecosystem for circular construction. Since its founding year in 2019 it has attracted many talented new team members that deeply care about Concular’s mission and understand the importance of connecting stakeholders within our ecosystem and inciting them to collaborate for true change. Many of our team members are part of initiatives like Architects4Future, ZIA committee, Verband für Bauen im Bestand e.V., the DGNB to convince others of our mission and bring about systemic change. Also, we are lobbying in the German Parliament and EU Commission for a legally binding framework for circular construction.

Your approach: How are you enabling other people to identify as green changemakers? How are you influencing them to get involved in your initiative or care about the issue you are addressing?

Enabling other stakeholders to take action is at the core of Concular's mission. We want to drive systemic change and it is our conviction that for true transformation to happen we need to mobilize a critical mass and motivate other change makers to join us. In fact, we address systemic change and stakeholder involvement through a range of measures.

Firstly, we engage with the next generation of decision makers in construction and train them to become change makers themselves. We regularly organize workshops with students from the fields of architecture, civil engineering and material sciences. In these workshops we introduce them to our approach to circularity, we show them the benefits that originate from a collaborative ecosystem and we try to convince them to follow our path by joining our cause, creating initiatives of their own or simply engaging more in these topics.

Secondly, we very much believe in the value of hands-on experiences for emotional commitment. We regularly invite interested university students to join us on our "Circularity Assessments". This way students gain first hand experience of circularity on sight, they learn how to apply it and they witness how tangible impact is created in practice rather than in theory. Oftentimes, these invitations lead to follow up engagement by students because they have witnessed the impact with their own eyes.

Finally, we have initiated the Circularity Partner Network in Europe, where more than 55 organizations from the construction sector share their expertise and collaborate on sustainability projects. At regular networking events, we exchange experiences with different circular practices, share insights from the ecosystem and aim to involve new players to become part of the transformation journey.

 

Community involvement: How is your approach involving community participation, especially the historically marginalized groups?

Concular’s slogan is “together circular!” for good reason. We have realized that in order to implement circularity in the building sector, we need to create a community of pioneers who think in an interdisciplinary and holistic way and support each other in creating new ways of planning buildings, using resources, sharing information and much more. Concular’s approach to circularity is about much more than just transitioning from linear to circular value chains. We stress the transformative aspect so much because the systemic change we aim for is societal in essence. The realization that we need a critical mass to change the status quo is why we focus so much on opening our ecosystem to all stakeholder groups. It is why we are actively seeking ways to include grassroot initiatives, engaging with young people from all regions and even on an international level because we know that their ideas and opinions are too often underrepresented in decision making units. If we want to change the status quo we need to take a different approach to problem-solving. This means involving and giving a voice to those who are normally ignored in this conservative industry. We are democratizing the transformation process because we are convinced that solutions that have been developed collaboratively among different stakeholders will be more sustainable and equitable in the long term.

Your Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions already out there? How is your approach original and innovative? We are particularly interested in solutions that use regenerative approaches.

We focus on leveraging the strengths of collaboration through our ecosystem rather than just selling a product. Our software is built on the digital material passport as the central digital infrastructure for the circular building industry. To create a material passport, existing buildings are digitized in a process Concular calls “Circularity Assessment”. This involves using specifically developed software and 3D scans to record the key data of all materials in the building, such as dimensions, composition, material type, manufacturer etc. The procedure is based on a method that Concular developed in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University. Based on this data, digital material passports are created, which in their entirety form the building passport. The material passports feed into a database for materials, thus enabling their reintroduction into new life cycles. Additionally, using a networked matching of supply and demand, the Concular Platform enables the organization of local reuse supply chains. In its entirety, this holistic solution enables the simple and economically viable reuse of building materials and is unique in the market so far. Involving all stakeholders along the value chain allows us to build solutions that address complex and systemic challenges. We collaborate with all stakeholders in the ecosystem to tap into the collective knowledge and to develop disruptive solutions. The understanding of dependencies and connections in the system enables collective, positive change not possible in isolation. While already today Concular can assess the life-cycle emissions and calculate cost savings of circular construction projects, more groundbreaking system-innovation is to be expected from this ecosystem in the future.

 

Founding Story: Share a story about the "Aha!" moment that led the founder(s) to get started or the story of how you saw the potential for this to succeed.

 

Since 2012, Concular’s founders have been dedicated to the topic of resource efficiency in the construction industry and finding ways to transform it. We started with restado, a marketplace for reused building materials. In the meantime, restado.de has become the largest marketplace of its kind in Europe and was voted one of the Top20 Global ConTech Startups in Procurement. Our “Aha!” - moment happened at restado, where we have been able to gain a lot of experience, but realized that to bring about systemic change we have to organize in an ecosystem of collaboration. We realized that what was missing for system change was a mean for stakeholders to bridge the gap and collaborate beyond immediate contracts. So far with restado.de, we only tackled the issue of matching supply and demand of reused construction materials. So why were so many players in the construction industry not reusing building materials? We conducted over 100 interviews with various experts from the construction industry and combined the findings with our experience from restado, identifying a lack of data and smart tools for collaboration as major obstacles to a circular approach. Based on the challenges we identified in these interviews, we founded the Concular in 2020 paving the way for circular construction in Germany and laying the basis for more than 270 successfully implemented projects to date.

Impact: How has your project made a difference so far? How is it contributing to a zero-carbon world- where every person thrives, and nobody gets left behind?

To date, Concular's team has worked on around 270 projects, ranging from circularity assessments and matching material demand and supply to consultancy and life cycle assessments. More than 60 buildings have been fully digitized as part of a Circularity Assessment. Moreover, we have been advocating circularity on national and EU level and we’ve participated in >50 events to convince others to become circularity changemakers. Our engagement has already led to >100t of avoided CO2 emissions, >EUR 2 million saved landfill costs. Another result is the creation of the Concular Circularity Partner Program, currently made up of 55 leading industry players. By including them into our ecosystem we give them access to relevant information and the capabilities to become circular changemakers themselves. Our assessment methods are scientific, enabling us to quantify our impact. Furthermore, Concular is the initiator of DIN SPEC 91484 for the standardization of "Pre-demolition Audits'' and is involved in the expert group of the Digital Logbook of the EU as well as the expert committee for circular construction of the German Society for Sustainable Construction (DGNB). In addition, Concular has already won a number of renowned prizes and awards including 2x the Immobilienmanager Award, European Prop Tech Award, Innovation Construction Award, DGNB Sustainability Award and many more.

What’s Next: What are your ideas for taking your project to the next level?

Concular’s software is designed for scalability and is in constant technical development to have a truly large ecological and economic impact and to meet the need for a climate-friendly building industry. The potential that still needs to be seized is enormous, because circular construction is still in its infancy. If the high-quality building materials present in the building are consistently returned to the material cycle, the construction industry can save up to 20 percent of global CO2 and 30 percent of resource consumption. At Concular we know that we cannot achieve the transformation on our own, which is why we will continue to look for new ways to involve others to collectively drive change. Concular wants to digitize all new German buildings and the majority of all existing buildings by 2030 through material and building passports for the materials to re-enter the lifecycle. However, Consular is aware that this is not just a German challenge, but a global one, Concular is striving to extend our ecosystem and our approach to enabling other players to become circular to other countries as well. Concular is already branching out to other countries in Europe and soon beyond, too.

Your team: What is the current composition of your team (types of roles, qualifications, full-time vs. part-time, board members, etc.), and how do you plan to evolve the team’s composition as the project grows?

The Concular team consists of over 40 highly motivated employees from the fields of architecture, engineering, software and business administration. Our architects and engineers bring specialist expertise and a wealth of experience in the construction and real estate industries. Our product team, which consists of software developers and IT specialists, enables us to develop an independent platform for the digitization of materials in buildings. Diversity is a very important aspect: our teams are interdisciplinary so that we continue to innovate and locate new solutions. Also, over 50% of the team is female and composed of 8 different nationalities from all over the world. This diversity ensures that we develop solutions in the global context and that work for many instead of for a few. Our offices are located inside the Berlin Impact Hub, a diverse and vibrant community of impact driven organizations, which facilitates constant exchange with changemakers from other impact fields.

Operational Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure operational sustainability.

Concular's solution is designed to ensure operational sustainability through a comprehensive approach that prioritizes long-term success. To achieve this, we have developed a clear roadmap that outlines our strategy for scaling our technology and expanding our reach through our ecosystem. This roadmap serves as a guide for our team and helps us stay on track as we work towards our transformative goals.

In addition to our roadmap, we are committed to ensuring financial sustainability for our organization. We have established long-term investor relations to secure funding that will enable us to continue to innovate and grow our impact. By maintaining strong relationships with investors, we have continuous discussions on steering our organization towards high social and environmental impact while also meeting financial sustainability.

Another key factor in our operational sustainability is co-worker satisfaction. We believe that a happy and engaged team is essential to the success of our organization. Therefore, we have put organizational processes in place to ensure that our employees’ wellbeing is prioritized. We engage heavily in topics like appreciation, satisfaction and mental wellbeing not only because those are topics close to our hearts but also because we know that they are essential for long-term impact.

 

VIDEO: Please share the link to a 1-minute YouTube video that answers the following “I identify as a Green Changemaker because...”. Ensure that your video does not exceed 60 seconds

https://youtu.be/eOgnPEnJof4

Impact Model: While reviewing applications, we identified a need to better understand the impact models for the innovations that applied. How would you describe the activities you engage in and what outcomes and long-term impact do they lead to?

Concular engages in four major fields of activities to drive circularity in the building industry and to achieve long-term impact.

Firstly, we are building an ecosystem for circularity in construction, which is the main lever for us to drive change on a systemic level. This involvement includes the establishment of collaboration with stakeholders along the entire value chain. Our Concular Circularity Partner Program is also a part of this field of activities and an important channel for us to provide access to information and capabilities for others to become green changemakers. 

Secondly, we offer Circularity Assessments, where existing buildings are digitized using software and 3D scans to record key data of materials. This data is used to create digital material passports, enabling the reintroduction of materials into new life cycles. By creating a material database and facilitating local reuse supply chains, Concular is building the foundation and infrastructure for the circular economy.

Thirdly, the building analytics features of our software allow owners to make data-based decisions for more climate friendly construction. Through these features, building owners are also enabled to comply with ever increasing complexity in reporting standards.

Finally, Concular operates a matchmaking platform for circular materials. By creating this circular marketplace we not only make circular materials accessible to everyone but we also establish a network of local, circular supply chains. This engagement is essential for construction to undergo a fundamental transformation and for long-term impact.

In summary, Concular’s long-term impact lies in scaling circularity in the building industry and expanding the approach globally by leveraging the potential of ecosystem collaboration.

Audience: Who are you most directly impacting through your work? Who is the target beneficiary? Please specify if the population you are reaching is underserved due to any of the following characteristics?

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

By addressing meta topics like climate change and resource scarcity through our approach we are indirectly targeting those parts of the population that are most effected by climate change. Socially marginalized groups like immigrants, children, elderly and economically disadvantaged people or people living in exposed geographical regions have been shown to be disproportionally affected by the consequences of climate change. While we are not directly targeting individuals, we are addressing their fate on a global scale and are working toward providing a better future for all.

How are you activating green changemakers?

If you chose the "Other" option, please specify

 

Organization Type: Which organization type best describes how your work or initiative has been organized or registered?

Hybrid

Tell us briefly about how you have and/ or would like to engage partners or other changemakers to enhance your approach:

Partner engagement is at the core of our approach as we understand that we cannot transform current practices on a large scale alone. And exactly this large scale transformation is what is needed to achieve impact that makes a difference. We approach stakeholder engagement through our ecosystem approach. We are building an ecosystem of partners along the entire value chain and other stakeholders in order to build an alternative system with circular practices that is inclusive and addresses the needs of all involved parties. Only if we offer a true alternative to the status quo that is sustainable at the same time will we be able to transform the sector at large scale. Our predominant channel for partnerships and collaborations is the Concular Circularity Partner Program. Through this program we provide all the necessary information around circularity in construction, transfer circular capabilities to our partners and provide a network that fosters collaboration for studies and pilot projects in circularity.

Annual budget: Hint: What is the cost for your current operations every year (or most recent year)? This is expenditure for your project or organization. The reference currency is the U.S. dollar.

$500k - $1m

Winning Impact Potential: How would winning the Green Changemakers Challenge impact and leverage your work?

Winning the Green Changemakers Challenge would be an invaluable opportunity for Concular for a number of reasons. Firstly, it would give Concular visibility on a global scale and recognition by a well respected network in the impact community. Secondly, having the opportunity to participate in the mentoring programme alongside HSBC and Ashoka team members would be of great value for Concular to help scale our approach. Thirdly, also beyond the mentoring program we would be able to benefit from the network of other changemakers and their approaches to creating impact. Through the exchange with other changemakers and potentially new ideas for our approach, we hope to find yet more innovative ways to scale impact in our field. Finally, the prize money would help us to further work on product development and hiring new team members as we expand our initiative in geographical scope.

Skills Matching: If you win, you may have the opportunity to be matched with HSBC employees for skill-based mentorship. If matched, which of the following skills would you be most interested in receiving?

Planning & Strategy